Metro Briefing | New York: Manhattan: Deutsche Bank Cleanup Halted

By DAVID W. DUNLAP (NYT); Compiled by John Sullivan

Published: May 2, 2006

The rooftop cleanup at the former Deutsche Bank building opposite ground zero has been suspended by the federal Environmental Protection Agency until regulators meet with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is overseeing demolition of the heavily contaminated tower. On March 31 and April 19, inspectors found ''visible debris and residual fines commingled with the roof ballast'' in areas that were supposedly clean, said Pat Evangelista, the agency's World Trade Center coordinator, in an April 27 letter to the corporation. (Fines are tiny particles.) The corporation said it voluntarily stopped the cleanup on April 20 after a ''fragment of asbestos-containing material'' was discovered in the ballast during the search for human remains from 9/11. The corporation's spokesman, John P. Gallagher, said that the finding should not pose a health risk to workers. DAVID W. DUNLAP (NYT)